Castro Protest Planned Today On Sea, Land

MIAMI -- More than 100 boats are expected to sail from Key West to within 13 miles of Cuba today as part of Flotilla `92 -- a protest against Fidel Castro and his government.

The flotilla was to leave Key West at 5 a.m. and arrive off Cuba at 1 p.m., where a religious service will honor rafters who have died in the Florida Straits.

While the boats are crossing, a march will be held in Miami, beginning at the Bay of Pigs Monument on Southwest Eighth Street and 13th Avenue. A caravan of cars and marchers will head to the Shrine of Our Lady of Charity.

At the shrine, protesters will hear radio broadcasts from the flotilla and listen to the service.

The flotilla was organized by the Association of Veterans of Special Missions, a paramilitary group once sponsored by the CIA. The group led a 1990 voyage that attacked 100 vessels, called the Brotherhood Flotilla. A military aircraft from the communist island nation buzzed the boats.